1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to data indexing and retrieval and more particularly to data indexing and retrieval of similar patients from massive patient electronic medical records.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the rapid development of information technologies, a tremendous amount of data has become readily available in various application domains. This big data era presents challenges for many conventional data analytic tools, platforms and systems. In medical research, electronic medical records (EMR) have gained in popularity to include massive amounts of patient medical information. The ability to analyze big data in modern healthcare systems is important in the improvement of the quality of care delivery.
Patient similarity evaluation aims at estimating the clinical affinity and diagnostic proximity of patients. Many medical applications are based upon patient similarity evaluation, such as risk stratification and comparative effectiveness research. However, existing approaches for patient similarity evaluation are inefficient in handling massive amounts of data.